My name is Rose, and I've been dancing since I was 4 years old. In 2020, I created a blog called Rose Ballet World on which I will show you a little bit about my life, my passion, my world.
Each week, you will be able to read an article on topics such as technique, physical preparation, nutrition or performance. We will also talk about mental preparation, stress management and many other topics that affect
the world of ballet.
Mental
The mind is a key part of performance in dance. It helps to resist stress and provide great motivation. All great dancers have a very strong mind.
The body and the head go hand in hand. By training one, the other progresses. Great dancers know it.
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The mind allows you to:
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Act on your emotions, your limiting beliefs and your states of mind before going on stage;
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Mentally relax to program yourself;
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Use visualization effectively to condition yourself to action and improve your gesture;
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Remain lucid in a situation of intense effort;
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Speed ​​up recovery after exercise;
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Create strong states of mind;
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Get in the right shape to dance and surpass yourself;
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Free yourself from the gaze of the other to make an ally;
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Synchronize your emotions, body and head for the art of movement.
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See: https://www.mental-camp.com/les-stages/mental-camp-par-activites/danse/
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Physical
The coordination
Having good coordination is a very important skill in everyday life as well as in dance. Coordination, for example, makes it possible to carry out a given action while providing it with reliability, efficiency and speed at the same time. Being more coordinated in your movements makes it all the more possible to be able to cope with any dance exercise.
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Endurance
1. Daily activity
If you're new to endurance training, small, simple activities is a good start. Take the stairs instead of the elevator or take a bike ride. The goal is to become able to take endurance to the next level in your activities. In short, if you find these activities too easy, take a look at the examples below.
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2. Jogging
Start with a 20-30 min run, alternating 30 second sprints at 90% of your maximum speed and slower runs at 65% of your maximum speed.
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3. Swimming
Water is a great natural element for resistance training. It does not damage the tendons and muscles even at high intensity. As with jogging, alternately try high speeds and slower speeds.
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4. Weight lifting
Cardio training is important, but so is muscle strength. Core exercises like planks or leg lifts are effective. Be careful not to over-muscle your arms.
Flexibility
Warming up
The body needs to be warmed up in order to allow greater amplitude during your stretch.
Your warm-up can last about 10 minutes.
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Ankle and foot work
This allows for a strong foot and nice lines of the legs and makes it easier to climb on pointe.
Example of exercise:
Position the elastic band under the left foot, between the toes and the arch of the foot, then alternate the flex foot and the pointed foot for 10 repetitions. You can do three sets for each foot.
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The flexibility of large gaps
Example of exercise:
Position an elastic band at your arch and hold each end in your hands. Then lie down on your back flat on the floor on your mat, holding your strap and swinging your right leg towards your face, as if you want to do a splits. Your left leg on the ground should remain straight and should not leave the ground.
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Exercises to work the outside
1) The butterfly position (to work on the opening of the hip)
Position yourself seated on the floor with your knees open on each side and the bottoms of your foot glued together. Extend your spine well and try to touch the ground with your knees in a gradual fashion.
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2) The frog
While lying on your stomach and keeping your pelvis flat on the ground, bring your feet together and bring them closer to your pelvis by spreading your knees.
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Artistic
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Ballet is a stylized form of Western theatrical dance based on a codified system of movements. It can tell a story, evoke an atmosphere, illustrate a musical work or a play or even constitute in itself an entertaining or unusual theatrical dance performance. Most often, it is danced to music, but this is not an absolute rule. Combined with sets and costumes, the ballet offers spectators a sumptuous visual feast.
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Today, the term refers more broadly not only to classical ballet and its well-defined techniques, but also to free forms of contemporary dance.
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Dance entered a new era in the first half of the 19th century. The dancer, choreographer and Italian master Carlo Blasis (1797-1878) wrote a number of books in which he set out his own theories on ballet and published an important manual in which he defined the techniques. At the same time, the European bourgeoisie flocked to see famous ballerinas like Marie Taglioni, Fanny Elssler and Carlotta Grisi. The technical progress which allows ballerinas to simulate an aerial lightness by dancing on tiptoes (thanks to adapted slippers) are at the origin of one of the most enduring leitmotifs of ballet. However, over the course of the century, this form of dance became, both in France and elsewhere in Europe, the prerogative of ballerinas, the dancers obtaining only secondary roles. Men were so marginalized that it was not uncommon to see male lead roles played by women dressed as men. Although the intellectual and aesthetic concerns of Romanticism did not quickly spread to ballet, works like La Sylphide (1832) and Giselle (1841), which bring together natural and supernatural elements, capture the imagination of the public and still feature today. one of the most popular.
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See Canadian Encyclopedia.
Technical
The ballet technique aims to acquire an anatomical flexibility of the joints which makes it possible to perform the different movements of the dance vocabulary. Ballet emphasizes the method and accomplishment of movements which differs depending on the teaching method.
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The fundamental principles of the ballet technique remain the same: general attitude of the body, adequate position, alignment of the head and shoulders in a vertical line, slender silhouette, quantity and quality of rotations with the leg pointing outwards from the body, dance on tips and flexibility. The goal to achieve is the perfect work of the foot, the graceful bearing of the arms and the head and an aesthetically correct position from the different angles.
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The exercises develop muscle strength, balance, flexibility and grace. Future ballerinas acquire the foot and ankle strength necessary for the pointes technique. Young dancers are advised to acquire good habits and protect the health of their bones, muscles and joints.
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Here are the main methods of teaching ballet dance. In decreasing order of notoriety:
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Vaganova (Russian) - the best known and most commonly taught
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Royal Academy of Dance, also called RAD (English) - combination of the methods of the main European classical dance schools
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Cecchetti (Italian) - taught around the world by schools
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Balanchine (American)
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Legat, after Nikolai Legat (Russian)
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Vestris (French) - mainly taught in Denmark
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These techniques, based on those of romantic ballet, are the support for many other styles of dance: hip-hop, modern and contemporary dance.
The different methods of teaching ballet dance all aim at the aesthetics of the dancer. This is particularly true for the extensions and the dynamism of the rotations of the Russian school, while the Italian school favors substantive work and rapid movements of the feet.
